Survivor: World of Monsters Read online

  But he didn’t go to those kinds of parties anymore.

  Still, he wasn’t in the backyard, and given his attire, something had happened.

  If it had been eight years ago, he would’ve chalked it up to drugs and alcohol wiping his memory clean. But other than those first couple years, he’d never done drugs or even drank heavily, and so this was rather confusing to him.

  He studied his surroundings. He was in a clearing a few hundred feet wide, the sun beating down on his head, much hotter than he would’ve expected an LA morning to be. It was like the noon sun, except he couldn’t have fallen asleep for that long. Last thing he remembered it hadn’t even been eight at night yet. Sixteen hours of sleep would have been a stretch even for his teenage self.

  He spun in place, looking around and trying to get his bearings.

  It was oddly quiet, which made him think it was early morning, but the sun was far too bright, its heat too intense, for the day to be so new. Also, he saw as he looked up at that great fiery ball, it was nearly directly overhead.

  Then he noticed something strange.

  “The fuck?” What he was seeing was impossible.

  He gaped up in utter confusion. What was going on?

  The sun floated nearly directly above him, showing that it was either a little before or a little after noon. And while what this implied—a sixteen-hour slumber—was hard to accept, it was nothing compared to the other fact he was faced with. One his brain was currently wrestling with, trying to make sense of the visual input it was receiving.

  For, impossibly, to his right and down in the sky a bit from the sun, was another object emitting light.

  But this wasn’t the moon, as his brain at first had tried to tell him.

  No, this was no moon. Nor was it a Death Star.

  It was a sun. A second sun.

  4

  Was he on a movie set? Was he dreaming?

  He was pretty sure neither of those things were true. He pinched himself and felt it, though he wasn’t actually sure what that was supposed to do. He couldn’t ever recall trying to pinch himself in a dream. This didn’t feel like a dream. And it was too complete to be a movie set.

  He stood there for a good minute, completely dumbfounded, looking around, trying to figure out what in the hell was going on.

  Other than the loincloth—which was little more than a ragged piece of rough cloth—he had absolutely nothing. No phone, no wallet, no keys. Even his wrist was bare, the smartwatch he’d worn, gone.

  The clearing was likewise empty, consisting only of dirt and a few scrub brushes poking out of the dark, rich soil.

  The trees were an oddly tropical mix, fitting for California—at least the developed areas of Los Angeles where people planted exotic trees—but these were too close together, too sporadic and natural-looking. Untrimmed and chaotic as if they’d been allowed to grow wild. And they were far too big, some of them hundreds of feet tall.

  In his mind, he ran through all the parks he knew of in the area, but none of them came even remotely close to fitting, not even Runyon. From any of those, you could still see the city, still hear its sounds. But here, instead of the LA skyline, he saw one unmolested by anything man-made, and the absence of sound was deafening.

  He looked out over the down-sloping trees, an endless forest which continued on to the limits of his vision.

  Far below in this direction was a valley, and for some reason he couldn’t identify, his stomach dropped at seeing it, an uneasiness rushing over him, the anxious urge to run.

  He took a breath to try to quell the unsettled feeling— And noticed the smell. Clean, yet strangely earthy and pungent.

  No, this was no movie set, this was no dream.

  Somehow he’d gone from Bradley’s backyard, to a jungle. That much he was now sure of.

  What he wasn’t, was how that had happened, and where exactly on earth he was.

  He looked up at the two suns. Or not on Earth.

  Still unable to shake that disquieting feeling in the pit of his stomach, he turned around from the valley and studied the other sides of the clearing.

  Exactly opposite the valley was an incline, the tall trees rising even higher as the ground elevated, blotting out his view of what was beyond.

  He walked to the edge, where the first trees began, and peered into the forest.

  Enough light filtered through the high branches that he could see into it, and several hundred yards away something caught his eye.

  He entered, wanting to put as much distance between him and that valley as possible.

  As he stepped beyond the first of the trees, the ground changed from soft dirt to dead branches and rotting leaves, making him well aware of the fact that he was barefoot.

  Bradley was into the whole barefoot running thing and had convinced Cal on two occasions to go on runs with him in Runyon Canyon.

  Cal had never liked it, and stepping on this rough ground now reminded him of why. It felt odd, and left him feeling oddly naked—something it did even when he was wearing more than a shoddy loincloth.

  It turned out that what had caught his eye was a gentle waterfall, and as he now walked toward it, his heart pounded. But not with fear. That uneasiness he’d felt at the sight of that valley had gone, and in its place all that was left was, unexpectedly, excitement.

  He couldn’t say it was quite happiness, but he felt more alive than he had in a long time. Despite the strangeness of the situation, the confusion—and maybe the danger—this was something new. Something unknown. And for the first time in a long while, he didn’t know what came next.

  5

  The waterfall was maybe twenty feet high. It fed into a small, clear stream that Cal was tempted to take a drink from. But he had no idea what bacteria might lurk in its crystal depths.

  Instead he looked up at the hill next to the waterfall. It was sloped at enough of an angle that he thought he could climb it. It seemed as good idea as any, and maybe he would see something he couldn’t from down here.

  He’d just dug his fingers into the vines covering the slope when words began appearing on the back of his hand.

  WARNING: WAVE INCOMING

  He jerked his hand away, shaking it out as though to shake off the writing that had appeared there.

  After a moment of confusion he realized the writing wasn’t on his hand, but simply floating in his field of view.

  That was even worse than some ghostly tattoo.

  He looked around, the words staying fixed in the center of his vision, the letters color-shifting to stay visible against the background.

  The warning was replaced by more text.

  UPGRADES INSUFFICIENT

  SUGGESTION: RUN AND HIDE

  Before he had much chance to wonder again what the hell was going on, the sky above the treetops flashed. This was immediately followed by a loud, peculiar noise that he couldn’t quite place.

  Another message appeared.

  DEPLOYMENT COMPLETE

  A moment later this was replaced by a number: 60.

  Then it changed again. 59. 58.

  A countdown.

  He heard something: rapid footfalls, the crunching of leaves, the breaking of branches, and some primal instinct took over.

  Faster than he would’ve thought himself capable, he scrambled up the hill next to the waterfall and dashed deeper into the forest, the ground here less open, nearly completely obscured by ferns and other tropical-looking plants which he didn’t recognize.

  He ran, breathing deep of the sweet, pungent air.

  Whatever was pursuing him was growing closer.

  Forty seconds left on the countdown.

  Shit.

  Run and hide, he thought.

  He didn’t know what the hell this thing in his vision was, but for some reason he chose to believe it.

  He had the running part down, but hiding…

  He spotted a tree with branches low enough that he could reach, and, not even bothering to stop, leapt into the air, feeling, as he soared through it, like the Leviathan character that had made him rich and famous. His palms slapped the smooth wood of the branch and latched on, and he hoisted himself up easily, the superhero training he’d gone through with his personal trainer Mark Griffin—at an hourly rate that wasn’t much less than the average person’s monthly rent—paying off.

  He scrambled up higher into the tree and then went still. He was trembling, but it wasn’t with fear. No, despite it all, he was still excited.

  What was wrong with him?

  He looked back the way he’d come, but couldn’t see anything. Yet.

  Then he heard noise from ahead and turned back, peering through the branches into the forest below.

  A pale figure approached swiftly. As it got closer, he realized it was a woman, dressed much like he was, rags around her waist, another around her chest which flapped as she ran, her large breasts bouncing, barely contained by the thin fabric.

  Then he heard them, their roiling growls, and he looked the other direction again to see monsters pouring up the ledge of the waterfall. He thought he’d come up it fast, but they were faster. Much faster. And that girl was running right into them.

  “Hey!” he hissed down at her, and she let out a little cry as she stumbled to the ground just in front of the base of the tree he was in.

  Twenty seconds left.

  “Shit,” he said, scrambling down to her.

  Fifteen seconds.

  Shitting crap fuck! he thought as he ran to her and helped her up. “Come on,” he urged, looking up and seeing the monsters coming toward them.

  He could see their “faces” clearly now, and he wished he hadn’t.

  They had mouthparts and too-big eyes and looked oh-so-ready to dig in to s
ome soft human flesh.

  And yet, Cal still wasn’t afraid.

  He practically dragged the girl to the tree, getting his hands under her bottom and hoisting her up to the lowest branch.

  She climbed, wrapping her arms around the thick central trunk, not coming close to reaching even halfway around.

  Cal didn’t need to see the 7 floating in his vision to know he was about to be eaten by these things.

  He crouched down then sprung up, leaping for the branch, muscling himself up just as one of the creatures lunged for him.

  It glided through the air, its sharp teeth or pincer or something grazing his foot just before he yanked it up.

  Not having anything to latch onto, it flew past and slammed into the trunk with a resounding crack.

  “Go,” he told the girl, urging her to climb to the next set of branches, watching as the one that had slammed into the tree shook itself off and rejoined the pack.

  He climbed up after her, but now they were stuck, as the next branch after this one was out of reach, and Cal sure as hell wasn’t going to try leaping for it and risk falling. If the fall didn’t kill him, the monsters surely would.

  “What are they!” the girl asked in a frightened, disbelieving voice.

  “I don’t know.” Whatever they were, he and this girl were now surrounded. Surrounded by monsters. Or aliens. Given the two suns, Cal had to accept, however impossible it seemed, that they probably weren’t on Earth anymore.

  “Thanks for saving me,” she panted, hand to her forehead.

  She was a baby-faced, punkish-looking girl with thick black hair cut into a long bob, several red streaks down the left side, the lashes around her bright green eyes so thick and dark it looked like she was wearing eyeliner, even though he could see she wasn’t.

  “Yeah,” he chuckled, “no problem.”

  When she dropped her hand Cal glimpsed two bumps on her forehead before her bangs fell back into place and covered them. He wondered if they were from the fall. They’d looked oddly symmetrical.

  “You know what the hell’s going on?” he asked.

  “I was gonna ask you the same thing. I was taking a bath and I must’ve dozed off. Then I woke up here. I thought I was dreaming at first, but now…”

  “Yeah, I kind of thought the same thing. Or that I was on a movie set.”

  The two of them stared down at the monsters. There were four of them, and they growled and lunged for the lowest branch, seeming very eager to get at the two meatbags above.

  Luckily the creatures were only about the size of large dogs, and though the lowest branch on this tree was low, it was still apparently high enough that they couldn’t reach it.

  He could see they had claws, however, and hoped they couldn’t simply climb up the trunk like a mountain lion.

  “What are we going to do?” she asked.

  Cal didn’t have a freaking clue. He didn’t have any weapons, and even if he had, there were four of the little bastards and only one of him. He wouldn’t be able to fight them all off at once.

  He looked around at the other trees. They were packed close together and he thought maybe they could make it if they walked to the edge of the branch they were on and leapt to the next one.

  Though if they fell into the little mass of alien piranhas below them…

  Cal pushed away the gruesome image playing out in his mind.

  What other option was there, though? He couldn’t see one other than waiting here and hoping the monsters got bored and left.

  One of the creatures suddenly made a hideous sound like metal grinding on metal.

  Cal looked down and saw a branch sticking out of the thing’s carapaced chest.

  His brows knitted. What had—

  Another branch flew into it and it screamed again.

  Not a branch, a spear.

  The creatures, one with two new wooden appendages, turned their attention to something out of Cal’s view then took off in that direction.

  He and the girl exchanged a glance.

  “Come on!” a voice urged. A tall woman dressed also in loincloth and simple top appeared at the base of the tree. “Hurry! Climb down. Once they realize Jonathan’s gone, they’ll come back here.”

  Cal didn’t know what the hell was going on or who this woman or “Jonathan” was, but they were people, and any people were better than those monsters, so he helped the girl in the tree with him down, then hung from the branch and dropped after her.

  “We’ve got to hurry,” the woman told them. She was tall, with long red hair, unfreckled, sunkissed skin, and a slim, muscular body. “As soon as he loses them, they’ll be coming back for us. And this time there’s too many to fight.”

  This time? Cal wondered, but didn’t have time to ask what she meant.

  She took off and Cal and the girl followed her. He wanted to ask if she knew what was going on, but right now all he was focused on was not getting eaten.

  Several yards before the waterfall, they turned, running along the edge of the hill.

  “Wait up!” a man’s voice called. A guy in his early twenties came running out from the woods to their left, catching up with the woman and running alongside her as he panted and looked over his shoulder.

  “Lose them?” she asked, her own breath steady.

  He shook his head. “Not really.”

  Now that Cal was paying attention, he noticed sounds coming from behind and to their left. The direction the man had come from.

  He looked that way and saw movement in the dense plants, though couldn’t make out any creatures just yet.

  “Shit,” the woman cursed. She glanced over her shoulder at Cal and the girl. “A few hundred feet up ahead is an embankment. Get ready to slide down it. Don’t try to go slow, you’ll get eaten if you do. Just slide foot-first as fast as you can. We’ve cleared the way.”

  Cal didn’t have a chance to respond, as a moment later the man jumped and disappeared from sight. Then the woman did the same and he saw there was a drop-off in front of them.

  The girl saw this too and tried to skid to a stop.

  Cal glanced over his shoulder and saw three of the monsters now right on their tail. “Fuuuck!” He put on a burst of speed, wrapping his arms around the girl and jumping down the embankment.

  She screamed as they landed, bounced, then began sliding.

  He’d expected only to slide for maybe twenty or thirty feet, but the path they were sliding down diverted through a small waterfall into a cave, reminding Cal of a waterslide.

  Except it was much darker in here than in those plastic tubes, and he had no idea if it was a nice pool of water that awaited them at the bottom, or pit of spikes.

  Unlikely, but a long drop off a huge cliff wasn’t.

  The girl shrieked as their speed increased.

  They were jolted harshly to the side by a sharp turn and a point of light suddenly appeared ahead of them, growing rapidly.

  They burst out of the dark and back into the forest.

  Cal quickly glanced behind him but all he saw was a wall of dirt and trees that the tunnel had taken them through.

  The path they were sliding down was muddy and quickly growing wetter.

  The man and woman were several feet ahead, arms crossed over their chests as they slid.

  Beyond them, in the distance, Cal spotted another waterfall.

  They were headed straight for it.

  “Waterfall!” the girl screamed, pointing.

  “Yeah,” he shouted back, “I can see that.”

  “That one’s huge! It’s going to crush us!”

  “Don’t worry!” the woman called back. “We’ve gone through it before. Just don’t stop. Not sure if those things will chase us down this.”

  Cal glanced behind him again, but still didn’t see the alien assholes.

  Water suddenly slammed into them and the girl screamed as they passed under the pounding waterfall and were nearly taken out.

  Before he could react they were through.

  They’d made it without apparent injury, but with all that water, they were now seriously picking up speed. This was way faster than any waterslide he’d ever been on. More like a raging rapid.

  “Slow down!” the girl in his lap urged. They were gaining on the two in front of them.